Add devices, organise sites, reach them from anywhere

Devices are only half of the job. Watchpost also keeps the list of what you look after: where each device is, how it is reached and who has access.

Every step of adding a device is described in the help. Adding a device

Add a device

One window, three sources. Pick how the device is known to you and fill in what you have.

By address: pick the protocol or let the search recognise it
By Xiongmai Cloud ID: the serial number from the sticker, no address needed
By Hik-Connect account: all devices of the account at once, or one by serial number
On a Mac, network search lists what it finds, names the vendor and marks what the app can do: add, partly, not supported
On an iPhone, scan the QR code or the barcode on the sticker

The Add Device window: devices found on the network on the left and the form on the right.

Sites and equipment

Group devices under sites and see at a glance what answers. Routers, switches, radio bridges and UPS units live in the same list as cameras.

A dot shows whether each address answers, checked every 30 seconds while the screen is open
The Path column says how a device is reached: directly, through a hub, over a VPN or through a cloud
A router's web interface opens from the list, and its password copies from there
Every device and every recorder channel can be put on a map

The Devices screen: cameras, recorders, a router, a switch and a UPS grouped under a site, with their types and paths.

Vendor clouds

When a device has no reachable address, the vendor's cloud is the only way in. Watchpost works with two and says plainly that the traffic goes through the vendor's servers.

Hik-Connect: live view and archive, the full settings window, several accounts side by side
Share access with another account, accept an invitation, ask the owner to approve a device
Xiongmai Cloud ID: live view, settings and events by serial number
The app reuses the session instead of signing in on every start

Your own hub

When even the cloud is not an option, the site router dials out to a hub on your server. The app manages hubs the way it manages devices.

A list of hubs and a screen for each one with its sites and tunnels, refreshed every 30 seconds
The wizard adds a site to the hub and writes the router script
Hand a site to a customer: an export without the router key, with a token of their own
One site can have several networks, up to eight

How remote access works

The hub screen: the sites on a hub with the state of each router.